{"product_id":"vintage-1960s-1970s-coach-and-four-soda-labels-set-of-7-philadelphia","title":"Vintage Combo Coach and Four Soda Labels 🐎 from 1960s-70s","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWant All Seven Coach and Four Soda Flavors? 🐎 The Coach and Four Line, All Seven Flavors\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 3 1\/2\" x 2 1\/2\" ~ Unused.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mEmpvi-_RaE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a set of seven Coach and Four bottle labels - Sarsaparilla, Bitter Lemon, Black Raspberry Soda, Ginger Beer, Ginger Ale, Tonic Water and Club Soda - every one of them wearing the same stagecoach-and-four-horses mark in its own color band. A \"coach and four\" is literally a carriage pulled by four horses, and that's exactly the little scene printed across each label: team out front, coach behind, reins in hand. Whoever built this brand knew what they were doing - it's a mark you'd spot across a whole shelf of flavors without reading a word.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e📮 A Zip Code Did the Dating For Me\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery label reads \"Bottled under authority of Coach and Four Products Co., Phila., Pa.\" with a five-digit zip code printed right under the address - most say 19140, the Ginger Ale says 19117. Five-digit zip codes are younger than you'd think: the Post Office Department didn't introduce them until July 1, 1963, and rolled them out with a cartoon mascot named Mr. ZIP and something like 72 million postcards mailed that day to explain the new system. So any label carrying one of these codes was printed in 1963 or later. I like when the object hands you its own timestamp like that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🍹 More Bar Cart Than Soda Fountain\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook at the flavor list and this set skews grown-up. Tonic Water says \"Contains Quinine\" right on the label. Bitter Lemon is \"made with whole lemons and quinine salt.\" Ginger Beer lists \"Jamaica ginger, citric acid and citrus oils.\" Between those, Club Soda and Ginger Ale, that's most of a 1960s home bar in one lineup - with Sarsaparilla and Black Raspberry Soda thrown in for whoever at the party wasn't drinking cocktails.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 Bottled Under Authority Of\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Bottled under authority of\" is franchise wording, printed right on every label - it means Coach and Four licensed local bottlers to fill and label soda under its name rather than running every plant itself. And the company does have a paper trail, in the U.S. Patent Office. The name COACH AND FOUR first went on soft drinks on \u003cstrong\u003eJune 26, 1956\u003c\/strong\u003e, and it was registered on \u003cstrong\u003eJanuary 29, 1957\u003c\/strong\u003e (trademark No. 640,759, for \"maltless soft drinks and carbonated waters\") by \u003cstrong\u003eSheffield Bottling Co.\u003c\/strong\u003e, a Philadelphia partnership doing business as \"Coach 'N Four Products Co.,\" with \u003cstrong\u003eHarry Labovitz\u003c\/strong\u003e signing as a partner. On \u003cstrong\u003eJuly 11, 1969\u003c\/strong\u003e Sheffield handed the name and its goodwill to a new partnership, \u003cstrong\u003eCoach and Four Products Company\u003c\/strong\u003e, which was \u003cstrong\u003eHarry Labovitz and Arthur Labovitz\u003c\/strong\u003e on North 6th Street in North Philadelphia, ZIP 19140. That's the company name printed on every label in this set, so these belong to the Labovitz years, late 1960s into the 1970s. The trademark was renewed in 1977 and finally lapsed in 1997. The odd one out, the Ginger Ale's 19117, is Elkins Park, just over the city line in Cheltenham Township, so the company printed from two addresses over its life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🫚 A Little History in Every Flavor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTonic water began as medicine: British officers in 19th-century India took bitter quinine against malaria and mixed it with soda and sugar to get it down, the first commercial tonic was patented in London in 1858, and the gin and tonic turns up in print in 1868. Ginger beer is older still, first brewed in Yorkshire in the mid-1700s, and in 1928 a snail in a bottle of it in Paisley, Scotland led to \u003cem\u003eDonoghue v Stevenson\u003c\/em\u003e, the 1932 case that founded modern negligence law. Sarsaparilla was sold in the 1800s as a \"blood purifier,\" and after the FDA banned sassafras oil in 1960 it had to be flavored another way, which is why Coach and Four's label says \"artificial sarsaparilla flavoring.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🎨 The Name\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhiladelphia's most famous coach and four is Thomas Eakins's painting \u003cem\u003eThe Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand\u003c\/em\u003e (1879 to 1880), in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with the horses posed from Eadweard Muybridge's 1878 photographs of horses in motion. A Philadelphia soda company picked a great Philadelphia image for its mark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-coach-four-black-raspberry-soda-label-philadelphia-pa\"\u003eVintage 1960s Coach and Four Black Raspberry Soda Label 🐎 from Philadelphia, PA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-1970s-coach-four-sarsaparilla-label-philadelphia-pa\"\u003eVintage 1960s-70s Philadelphia Coach and Four 🐎 Sarsaparilla Soda Label\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-coach-four-club-soda-label-philadelphia-pa-1960s-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1960s Coach and Four Club Soda 🍾 Label Philadelphia PA Lithograph Stagecoach Four Horses\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42102116155624,"sku":"VAG-7464868085992","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3535430631_e9zn.jpg?v=1785356351","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-1970s-coach-and-four-soda-labels-set-of-7-philadelphia","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}